American musician, as much a symbol of Manhattan as the Empire State Building, who epitomized the glamorous New York of the ‘art deco’ 1930s. For more than 25 years he had been bringing audiences cheek to chic with “Cole and Noel” at New York’s Cafe Carlyle. He called himself a saloon singer, but did two shows a night in some of New York’s most elegant lounges and performed at the White House in 1970. With a trademark gravelly voice, he sang witty and incisive lyrics with flawless elocution and phrase. He appeared in a few films and made a couple TV appearances.
He was the ninth of ten kids in a poor but musical black family. As a child prodigy, he taught himself to play and sing entirely by ear. By the age of 11 he was performing at weddings, conventions, roadhouses and on the vaudeville circuit. While a youth, he also met many of music’s greatest and acquired knowledge of art, classical music, architecture and opera.
Although Short never publicly declared that he was gay, it was well known among his friends, fellow musicians, and even among some of his fans.
On 21 March 2005 the incomparable cabaret singer and jazz pianist died of leukemia at New York Presbyterian Hospital. An AP report called him a “fixture” at his piano in the elegant Carlyle Hotel in New York, where he had entertained his audience for more than 35 years. Bobby Short was 80 years old.
Link to Wikipedia biography